Bloody Hands

Rage:  That’s the name of Bob Woodward’s newest book, it also describes the way a lot of us feel today after learning that Trump knew in February that the coronavirus was far more lethal than the flu and that it spread through airborne emissions. Despite that knowledge he had no problem asserting that the virus wouldn’t make it to our shores, failed to ramp up the production of crucial protective equipment, did nothing to implement a testing program and told all of us that there was nothing to worry about purportedly because he didn’t want to create undue panic but really because he didn’t want to risk his trade deal with China or “his” economy.  This being the Trump administration he was abetted by his staff and cabinet, including his national security advisor Robert O’Brien who told him on January 28 that the virus “’will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency….. the roughest thing you face” but then had no problem going on the air and calling it a big nothing. And who can forget that day in March when Kellyanne Conway snapped at the press, saying “is it not contained.”  Of course Trump’s communications team rose to his defense yesterday, first trying to deny that he said the things that Woodward who taped most of his eighteen conversations with Trump has proof he said and then saying that the dreadful, implicating things Trump said were taken out of context. Tucker Carlson, Trump’s Fox fanboy, even went so far as to attack Senator Lindsey Graham, blaming Trump’s golf buddy/fan boy for encouraging Trump to talk to Woodward.  The Trump Communications team message is that we’re supposed to ignore that Trump told Woodward on February 7 that “You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed…..this is deadly stuff.”   We’re also supposed to forget that Trump promised us that the virus was no worse than the seasonal flu, would go away on its own, dissed and continues to diss mask wearing and held and continues to hold COVID spreading rallies despite what he knew then and what he knows now. And don’t forget all those dead people, we’re supposed to ignore them too.  For his part Trump is sticking with that “I just didn’t want to cause panic” thing, and of course last night he continued to brag about stopping travel from China and claim that as a result of his acumen the US has handled the virus better than any other nation in the universe despite our proportionately high mortality rate. 

The disclosures about Trump’s knowledge about the lethality of the coronavirus represent only part of the book, other sections reveal Trump’s affinity for despots like his BFFs Kim Jong un and Vlad Putin and what many of Trump’s early cabinet members and senior advisors thought about him; for example that James Mattis his first Secretary of Defense thought many of his actions were dangerous and showed that he had no moral compass and that Dan Coats, his first Director of National Intelligence, suspected he was a Russian agent. Woodward’s book won’t be available to the public until September 15, so far we only know what’s in the parts that those who’ve gotten preview copies have shared but its fair to assume that it’s chock full of other damning information that we’ll learn about over the next few days.  As to Woodward, he’s got some ‘splaining to do too, like why didn’t he come forward earlier about what he knew about Trump’s knowledge of the virus’ lethality.  Maybe, sharing that information could have influenced Trump’s actions, maybe not.  Sadly, because Woodward prioritized profits over spreading a virus alarm that’s something we’ll never know. 

Whistleblowing: Because learning that Trump purposely misled us about the virus wasn’t enough alarming news for one day, we also learned yesterday that we have another whistleblower.  Brian Murphy, who until recently was in charge of intelligence and analysis at the Department of Homeland Security reports that he was told to stop providing intelligence reports on the threat of Russian interference in the 2020 election because it made Trump “look bad.”  In addition to being told by Chad Wolf, the current acting Homeland Security Secretary, to stand down on reporting about the Russian threats, highlighting instead threats from China and Iran, Murphy says that he was also told to modify other intelligence reports including those that detailed the threat of white supremacism, to bring them in line with Trump’s public comments and views.  That’s Trump who one time fixer/lawyer Michael Cohen says is a racist and who told Bob Woodward that he was just another one who’d “drunk the Jello” when Woodward asked him if he understood the “pain and anger felt by black people.”  Murphy says than when he refused to play ball  he was demoted.  Chad Wolf isn’t the only one that Murphy calls out, he also says that former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielson lied to Congress by exaggerating the number of terrorists crossing the Mexico border, something she did to make those statistics match Trump’s mendacious claims. Not surprisingly, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is taking all of these accusations very seriously which is a good thing, but I seem to remember that the week started with Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney and her Oversight Committee taking concerns about  Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s illegal campaign contributions very seriously too.  At this point it feels like we are on crime overload, that Trump’s efforts to screw up the delivery of mail-in ballots, and to ignore or maybe even help Russian election interference is turning into background noise at a very crucial time. And let’s not forget that Trump is also calling out faux voter fraud while encouraging his dedicated base to commit some.  Benjamin Ginsberg a top Republican election lawyer hasn’t, yesterday in a Washington Post op-ed he said that Trump’s actions “urging his followers to commit an illegal act and seeking to undermine confidence in the credibility of election results are doubly wrong."  Another cry for rationality from the incredibly shrinking pool of old school Republicans, you know the ones who didn’t mind a little bit of voter suppression but who are now outraged at what their efforts have spawned. 

Et Cetera:  That event that triggered the global shutdown of the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine trials, it involved a woman in the UK who experienced neurological symptoms consistent with a rare but serious spinal inflammatory disorder called transverse myelitis. She appears to be doing well and is likely to be released from the hospital shortly.  For the record this was the second time that the AstraZeneca trials were halted, apparently there was also another issue of a patient showing neurological issues that caused a suspension in July but the trials were restarted once it was determined that the patient in question had multiple sclerosis unrelated to the vaccine, or at least hopefully unrelated to the vaccine.   And lastly I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Trump has been nominated for a Nobel Peace prize for his, and by his think Jared Kushner’s, work getting Israel and the UAE to announce the normalization of their relations. In response and ignoring all of that background noise coming from the Woodward book and the newest whistleblower, Fox Business News/Trump sycophant Lou Dobbs said that Trump “today had a great day, a day that any president could only dream of,” because no one should be at all concerned about the 190,000 plus Americans who have died because Trump failed to “panic” the nation.